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Psyche? Fielded? Unhappy oppos

A question from an aggrieved member who was "done" earlier this week:

Bidding with East opening
p p 2d 3h
p p X p
4c all p.

4C made +2 for a bad score when all other EW made 3N.

2d was a multi including weak M, 21/22 NT, 16+ 4441. Alerted and described on request.
For 3h their card says weak jump overcall. No questions, no alerting.

  • Is 3h a psyche?
  • Did South field it?
  • In both cases I think not. So how to explain to oppos who regard such bids as "not cricket"? The human side of TD-ing I always find hardest.

Comments

  • I would probably regard this as a deviation - an extreme one, but the hand was weak - probably by less than a King - and I suppose might be made on 6 hearts - so the suit is only one out.

    I don't think South fielded it - the hand is balanced (which is always a danger sign) and he does have two cards that might win a trick - also the jack of hearts could be useful against 3NT. Equally of course, you don't want the auction to be tempo-driven so that EW bid a game that they might not reach.

    I suspect the real problem for EW is that they had no system agreements of what to do after interference following a multi 2D - East, by the looks of it, failed to cater for the possibility that West had a strong balanced hand - at least initially, but the double surely indicates a strong option, and then East West basically have a bidding misunderstanding - East should bid 3NT with his heart stopper as a practical bid: once he bids 4 Clubs West is (naturally) worried that a heart lead through his KX will result in two losers and then there may be another one. he would also be worried tat 4NT would be taken as Blackwood of some variety.

    I think one way to explain to the opponents is to say it certainly isn't cricket- it's bridge!

    (OK - I think what they actually need is some pleasant teaching that one aspect of bridge is to disrupt the opponents exchanging information so that they might fail to reach the best contract - those matchpoints and a nice positive score aren't theirs by right just because they have a strong hand. I feel that, certainly at the beginner/ improver level, too much is made of system, not much of cardplay, and very little about competitive, pre-emptive and psychic bidding. It would probably be best to have a whole-class lesson rather than a 1:2 talk. - You can also tell them what and how information can be exchanged and the danger that if players deviate or psych too much then their partner can become aware of it and there may therefore be an implicit agreement that is different from what's on the convention card (if they have one!))

  • I don't think it is a psyche.
    I don't think South did any fielding.
    EW are architects of their own misfortune by playing a toy and not having discussed what to do if beastly opponents come in over it. North might have had one more heart and one fewer diamond in which case it would be fairly routine with no suggestion, perhaps, that EW would have done anything different.
    I think they want to blame their bad result on their own incompetence! Having said that however the toughest thing will be to find a diplomatic way of saying so.
    Better advice might be to suggest giving up a Multi and play three weak two's until such time as they have further discussed the nuclear weapon in their armoury.

  • EW's Multi is in part, with weak 2's included, meant to disrupt the opponents. If they're unhappy when their bidding is disrupted time to spend more time on their methods rather than complain.
    Assume the X of 3H (not alerted?) was a 'Multi X' ie take out with either the NT hand OR 4144 so E will always be guessing, as will W with a 3343 etc 21-22.
    I doubt many would overcall 3H but it worked so a good bid.
  • How ironic that a pair using the Multi 2D bid says of the others "not cricket".
    After 2 passes, North can tell West has a strong variety and so uses his WJO gadget to great effect.
    "Not cricket" - but as Gra says "good bid".

  • The only Laws question here is whether South was fielding; if there's no fielding then it doesn't matter whether it was a psyche or not.

    I don't think South was fielding. South's hand clearly doesn't expect to make anything opposite a weak jump overcall, and I can't see any reason to sacrifice with it either (especially as a WJO normally has a 6-card suit, and a 9-card fit is not normally enough for a sacrifice at the 4 level).

    For what it's worth, I don't consider North's bid a psyche, although I do consider it foolhardy (West with a strong balanced option will double, as happened on the actual hand, and East with an ability to penalise should pass the double; N/S would have gone down massively in anything). Bidding on that hand is basically a gamble that your opponents don't know their system, and that seems to have paid off.

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